Torrance Unified’s Valerie Soohoo has been named one of Los Angeles County’s best preschool educators by a local nonprofit group.

Competing against 100 other applicants, the 12-year teaching veteran was among six recognized as a Preschool Teacher of the Year by Los Angeles Universal Preschool.

Soohoo, who teaches special education students at LAUNCH Preschool in Torrance, was honored Thursday at an awards ceremony at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles.

“I’m overwhelmed and honored. It was quite a surprise,” said the Torrance resident.

Soohoo said her teaching philosophy is simple.

“It takes lots of patience, flexibility and just doing whatever it takes to get the children engaged and interested in wanting to learn and wanting to try new things. It’s so rewarding to work with the children and see them making progress, even if it is tiny baby steps.”

Awardees were chosen based on a strong commitment to a quality preschool education and how creative they are in keeping students interested.

Psychologist Susan Lee said she and fellow teachers and administrators thought Soohoo was an obvious choice because of how effective she is working with students with special needs.

“Everyone who is going to be nominated for this award is going to be very caring and compassionate and a mentor to others, someone who is very enthusiastic,” she said. “What makes her exceptional is that she is so much more than that.”

Soohoo does two jobs for the district. The first is to teach for preschool children with special needs like autism and mental retardation.

The challenge for her is to combine state, district and campus curriculum standards into a daily lesson for students.

“It’s a phenomenal task and she does it so smoothly and easily and seamless for these children,” Lee said. “They just think they are having fun but they are learning things like language and social skills.”

Soohoo also works to help other teachers recognize what special education students need and come up with ways to help them reach academic goals.

Soohoo earned her master’s degree in early childhood education at Lesley College and started working for the Torrance Unified School District in 1997.

She later earned her special education certification in 2002 at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

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